Am I eating too much sugar?

Daniel Platteau

In short: the problem is not carbohydrates in general, nor the sugar in whole fruit, but free sugars: added sugar, honey, syrups and fruit juice. WHO advises adults to eat less than 50 g a day, and ideally less than 25 g (about six sugar cubes). A single can of soda already contains about 35 g. You are probably concerned if you drink sodas, juices or iced teas every day, if you snack on biscuits or sweets, or if your breakfast cereals and yoghurts are sweetened. The best-established risks are tooth decay, weight gain and type 2 diabetes, especially with sugary drinks. The most effective step: replace sugary drinks with water, then gradually reduce the sweet taste.

Updated on 16 October 2026.

The quick test: does this concern me?

Indicative values, which vary between brands: check the label. If you tick two or three lines every day, you are probably above the WHO limit. The good news: a single habit, often the drink, accounts for most of the excess.

Carbohydrates: what are we talking about?

The word "sugar" covers very different things. Carbohydrates are a large family of nutrients that provide energy. The body turns almost all of them into glucose, the fuel of our cells and the only one the brain normally uses.

People used to talk about "fast sugars" and "slow sugars". The distinction is misleading: white bread, made of starch, raises blood sugar almost as fast as table sugar. What counts is how fast a food raises blood sugar (see the glycaemic index below) and the amount eaten.

Fibre is the carbohydrate we do not digest. It feeds the gut bacteria, slows the absorption of sugars and is filling. Belgians do not get enough: 16 g a day on average, compared with a reference value of 25 g for adults (Sciensano, 2025).

Free sugars versus "intrinsic" sugars: the distinction that matters

The World Health Organization (WHO) calls free sugars:

• sugars added by the manufacturer, the cook or yourself;
• sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices, even 100% pure juice.

Not free sugars: the sugars contained in whole fruit and vegetables and the lactose in plain milk. In a fruit, the sugar is locked inside the cells and comes with fibre. You have to chew, it arrives more slowly, and you feel full before eating too much. Nobody eats six oranges in a row; it is easy to drink the juice of six oranges.

The names of sugar on the label

Sugar hides under many names: dextrose (simply glucose, neither more nor less dangerous than sugar), glucose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, invert sugar, molasses, honey, agave syrup, coconut sugar, concentrated fruit juice, malt extract.

Maltodextrin is a special case: it is a pre-digested starch that raises blood sugar as fast as sugar but is not counted under "sugars" on the label.

On the nutrition label, the line "carbohydrates, of which sugars" shows all sugars, including those from fruit or milk: it does not single out free sugars. To get an idea, also look at the ingredients list, in decreasing order of quantity: if a sugar appears among the first ingredients, the product contains a lot of it.

How much sugar per day?

The reference values

• WHO (2015): less than 10% of calories from free sugars, about 50 g a day for an adult eating 2,000 kcal. Ideally, less than 5%, about 25 g: this second recommendation is "conditional", as the evidence is weaker (WHO, 2015).
• EFSA (2022): the European Food Safety Authority could not set a threshold below which sugar would be risk-free. It concludes that added and free sugars should be consumed as little as possible within a balanced diet (EFSA NDA Panel, 2022).
• Belgian Superior Health Council: sugary drinks as little as possible; water as the basic drink (Superior Health Council, 2019).
• Anses (France): at most 100 g of total sugars a day (fruit included, milk excluded) for an adult, 75 g between 8 and 12, 60 g between 4 and 7 (Anses, 2016).

For a child, who eats fewer calories, the same percentages mean fewer grams: for a 6-year-old eating about 1,500 kcal a day, 10% is less than 40 g. A single can of soda comes close to that maximum.

And carbohydrates in general?

Sugar is only a small part of carbohydrates. Belgian reference values advise that carbohydrates provide 45 to 60% of calories, preferably as whole grains, pulses, vegetables and fruit. Cutting out all carbohydrates is neither necessary nor recommended for the general population.

What Belgians eat

Sciensano's national food consumption survey (2022-2023, 3,777 people aged 3 and over) gives a precise picture (Sciensano, 2025):

• Sugars (all types): 19% of calories on average, 23% in children. That is slightly lower than in 2014-2015 (21%). These figures include the sugars in fruit and milk: the survey cannot measure free sugars.
• Main sources of sugars: confectionery and sugar (19%), fruit (17%), non-alcoholic drinks (14%), dairy products (14%), cakes and sweet biscuits (13%).
• Sugary drinks: 132 g of drinks (not sugar) a day on average, but 200 g among 10-17-year-olds, and 175 g among the least educated compared with 83 g among the most educated. Consumption is falling: from 192 to 156 g a day among 3-64-year-olds between 2014-2015 and 2022-2023.
• Total carbohydrates: 43% of calories. Six in ten Belgians are below the recommended range of 45 to 60%.

In other words: Belgians do not eat "too many carbohydrates", but not the right ones. Too many added sugars and sugary drinks, not enough fibre and whole grains.

Since 2016, Belgium has levied an excise duty per litre on non-alcoholic drinks with added sugar or sweeteners, diet sodas included (bx1, 2019; VATupdate, 2025). It raises the price, but does not depend on the amount of sugar, unlike the British levy, which is based on sugar content.

Sugar and disease: what is proven

Tooth decay: the strongest link

The bacteria in dental plaque turn sugars into acids that attack the enamel. The risk depends on the amount, but above all on the frequency: nibbling sweets all day or sipping a soda for hours is worse than eating a dessert at the table. It was primarily on this basis that WHO set its 10% limit.

Weight and metabolism

EFSA graded the evidence from controlled trials: a cause-and-effect link between added sugars and obesity or raised blood fats is judged to be of moderate certainty; for type 2 diabetes and fatty liver, the certainty is low; for high blood pressure, very low (EFSA NDA Panel, 2022).

Sugary drinks are the most problematic: liquid calories are not very filling, and people do not eat less at the next meal. A meta-analysis of 17 studies estimated that one can of sugary drink a day was associated with an 18% higher risk of type 2 diabetes, and still 13% after taking weight into account (Imamura et al., 2015).

The liver

Fructose (half of table sugar, and a large part of glucose-fructose syrups and agave syrup) is processed mainly by the liver. In excess, and especially when total calories are too high, it promotes fat production in the liver. Non-alcoholic "fatty liver disease", now called MASLD, affects a growing share of overweight adults. The fructose in a whole fruit, in small amounts and with fibre, does not have this effect.

Cancer

The link between sugar and cancer runs mainly through excess weight, which increases the risk of many cancers. A direct effect of sugar has not been shown in humans.

The big 2023 review

In 2023, an umbrella review published in the BMJ brought together 73 meta-analyses covering 83 health outcomes. The authors found 45 harmful associations between sugar consumption and health, and suggest limiting free sugars to 25 g a day and sugary drinks to less than one a week (Huang et al., 2023). They acknowledge that most of the evidence is observational and of low to moderate quality, except for weight.

A natural experiment: sugar rationing

In the United Kingdom, sugar remained rationed after the war, until September 1953. A study published in Science in 2024 compared adults conceived just before and just after the end of rationing. Those who had experienced rationing during their first 1,000 days (from conception to age 2) had about a 35% lower risk of type 2 diabetes and a 20% lower risk of high blood pressure, and these diseases appeared later (Gracner et al., 2024).

Level of evidence: a "natural experiment", more convincing than a simple observation, but unable to control for everything. It reinforces a simple message: avoid added sugar in babies and young children.

What you hear about sugar: true or false?

"Fruit sugar is as bad as white sugar." False. Whole fruit provides fibre, vitamins and water, and is associated with better health. The problem lies with juices and fruit turned into syrup or sweetened purée.

"Honey, agave syrup or coconut sugar are healthier." False. They are free sugars like any other. Agave syrup is even very high in fructose. The few minerals or antioxidants they contain are present in negligible amounts.

"Dextrose is more dangerous than sugar." False. Dextrose is glucose. It raises blood sugar faster than sucrose, but in equal amounts it is no more harmful.

"Sugar makes children hyperactive." False. Double-blind trials, in which neither the children nor the parents know who received sugar, show no effect on behaviour (Wolraich et al., 1995). The effect mainly comes from the context (parties, birthdays) and from what parents expect to see.

"Sugar feeds cancer, you must stop it if you are ill." False as stated. All cells use glucose, and the body even makes it without eating any. Cutting out sugar does not shrink a tumour. During treatment, the priority is not to lose weight or muscle: talk to your care team about it.

"You must avoid every blood sugar spike." Exaggerated. See below.

"You must cut out carbohydrates to be healthy." False for the general population. Whole grains, pulses and fruit are associated with less disease. Very low-carbohydrate diets can help some people lose weight, but in general they do no better in the long run than other balanced diets.

Blood sugar spikes and monitors: a trend to put into perspective

Social media is full of videos of glucose monitors stuck on the arms of people without diabetes, and of tips to "flatten your curve": eat vegetables before starchy foods, walk after the meal, avoid sugar on an empty stomach.

These tips are not absurd: eating fibre and protein before carbohydrates, and moving after a meal, do reduce the rise in blood sugar. But:

• in a healthy person, blood sugar normally rises after a meal and comes back down on its own: that is insulin's job. Fasting, it is roughly between 3.9 and 5.5 mmol/l (70 to 100 mg/dl); two hours after a meal, it generally stays below 7.8 mmol/l (140 mg/dl);
• the monitors measure glucose under the skin, with a delay compared with blood, and even the most accurate can be off by about 20%, which can show worrying "spikes" when blood sugar is normal;
• there is a lack of studies showing that flattening your curves improves long-term health in a person without diabetes;
• a review by University College London researchers warns about the anxiety and obsessive eating behaviours these tools can fuel (UCL, 2024).

For a person with diabetes, on the other hand, the monitor is a valuable medical tool.

Glycaemic index and glycaemic load

The glycaemic index (GI) ranks foods by how fast they raise blood sugar, compared with pure glucose. White bread, mashed potatoes and puffed cereals have a high GI; lentils, al dente pasta and most fruits have a lower GI.

But the GI does not take the amount into account. The glycaemic load does: it multiplies the GI by the amount of carbohydrate in the portion. Watermelon has a high GI, but a slice contains little sugar: its glycaemic load is low. The GI of the same food also varies with cooking, ripeness and what you eat with it.

What can replace sugar?

• Water, above all. Still, sparkling, flavoured with a slice of lemon or mint leaves.
• Whole fruit rather than juices and sweet desserts.
• Spices (cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom) in plain yoghurts and home baking, while cutting the sugar by a third: most recipes can take it without anyone noticing.
• Sweeteners: useful for getting out of heavy soda drinking, but not as a long-term solution. They are covered in our detailed article.
• "Alternative sugars" (honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, whole cane sugar): these are free sugars. They replace nothing, they just change the taste.

Good news: a taste for sweetness can be retrained. By cutting down gradually, many people find after a few weeks that their usual products are too sweet.

What to do in practice?

1. Replace sugary drinks with water. This is the step with the biggest effect. If it is too hard, first switch to the zero version, then to sparkling water.
2. Eat fruit, don't drink it. One glass of juice a day at most, and preferably not every day.
3. Choose plain versions of yoghurts, fromage frais and cereals, and sweeten them yourself, with less.
4. Read the ingredients list: if a sugar is among the first three, it is a sweet product.
5. Keep sweet things for mealtimes rather than for snacking, for your teeth.
6. No added sugar for babies and young children: not in bottles, not in purées, not in drinks.
7. Eat more fibre: wholemeal bread, pulses, vegetables, whole fruit.

When to see a doctor? If you are very thirsty, urinate a lot, lose weight for no reason or are very tired, ask your doctor for a blood test: these are possible signs of diabetes. If you are overweight, have diabetes in the family or had diabetes during a pregnancy, talk to your doctor about screening, even without symptoms.

A video to go further

Mathilde Touvier, a research director at Inserm, explains on the Le Blob channel (Universcience, March 2025; in French) why we should neither demonise all sugars nor ignore them, and what she thinks of the "30 days without sugar" trends, glucose monitors and the ketogenic diet.

Going further: why sugar is so hard to study

What we eat is poorly measured. Most studies rely on questionnaires, and people underestimate what they eat, especially foods seen as "bad".

Sugar never travels alone. Heavy soda drinkers smoke more often, move less and eat more ultra-processed products. Statistics try to correct for these differences, without ever fully succeeding.

Trials are short. People can be randomly assigned to more or less sugar for a few weeks or months, and their weight, cholesterol or liver fat measured. It cannot be done for twenty years to count heart attacks. That is why EFSA relies on these intermediate markers.

Industry has weighed on the debate. In the 1960s, the American Sugar Research Foundation funded Harvard researchers whose literature review played down the role of sugar in heart disease and put the emphasis on fat, as revealed by archives published in 2016 (Kearns et al., 2016). Even today, it pays to check who funds a study.

Context matters. Sugar in a fruit, in a plain yoghurt or in a soda does not have the same effect. Total calories matter too: many of the harmful effects of fructose only appear when people eat more than they need.

Despite these limitations, all sources converge on the same advice: cut down on free sugars, starting with drinks.

Test yourself

Disclaimer

This article is a summary of information. It does not replace the advice of a doctor or dietitian, especially in case of diabetes, liver disease, pregnancy or for children.

Sources

Anses. (2016). Sucres dans l'alimentation (in French). French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety. https://www.anses.fr/fr/content/sucres-dans-lalimentation

bx1. (2019, August 12). Taxes sur les boissons sucrées : 175 millions dans les caisses de l'État (in French). https://bx1.be/?p=385278

EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens. (2022). Tolerable upper intake level for dietary sugars. EFSA Journal, 20(2), e07074. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2022.7074

Gracner, T., Boone, C., & Gertler, P. J. (2024). Exposure to sugar rationing in the first 1000 days of life protected against chronic disease. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adn5421

Huang, Y., Chen, Z., Chen, B., et al. (2023). Dietary sugar consumption and health: Umbrella review. BMJ, 381, e071609. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071609

Imamura, F., O'Connor, L., Ye, Z., et al. (2015). Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages, and fruit juice and incidence of type 2 diabetes: Systematic review, meta-analysis, and estimation of population attributable fraction. BMJ, 351, h3576. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h3576

Kearns, C. E., Schmidt, L. A., & Glantz, S. A. (2016). Sugar industry and coronary heart disease research: A historical analysis of internal industry documents. JAMA Internal Medicine, 176(11), 1680–1685. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.5394

Le Blob. (2025, March 23). Faut-il bannir totalement le sucre de son alimentation ? Explication [Video, in French]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtOMz6_m_Jo

Sciensano. (2025). Results of the national food consumption survey 2022-2023: carbohydrates, mono- and disaccharides, dietary fibre, sugar-sweetened beverages. Sciensano. https://www.sciensano.be/en/results-national-food-consumption-survey-2022-2023

Superior Health Council. (2019). Dietary guidelines for the Belgian adult population (opinion no. 9284). FPS Public Health. https://www.health.belgium.be/sites/default/files/uploads/fields/fpshealth_theme_file/20191011_css-9284_fbdg_vweb.pdf

University College London. (2024, June 27). Use of glucose monitors by people not living with diabetes needs more regulation. UCL News. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jun/use-glucose-monitors-people-not-living-diabetes-needs-more-regulation

VATupdate. (2025, September 4). EU sugar taxes: Diverse approaches to reducing sugary drink consumption across member states. https://www.vatupdate.com/2025/09/04/eu-sugar-taxes-diverse-approaches-to-reducing-sugary-drink-consumption-across-member-states/

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World Health Organization. (2015, March 4). WHO calls on countries to reduce sugars intake among adults and children. WHO. https://www.who.int/news/item/04-03-2015-who-calls-on-countries-to-reduce-sugars-intake-among-adults-and-children